Tiffany came home and immediately went into her room and locked the door. Minutes later, Taeyeon heard guitar sounds and muffled singing.

The girl was good. But she could rarely bring herself to show it.

Taeyeon removed herself from the couch with some difficulty. Her had sunk all the way into the couch and was enveloped in a perfect mould of cheap foam and cushioning of her behind.

They really needed a new couch…

Quietly making her way to the hallway right outside Tiffany’s room, Taeyeon sat down on the carpeted floor, pressing her ear against the rough wooden surface of the door behind her, just listening to Tiffany’s husky muffled voice and smiling to herself.

Taeyeon wished Tiffany could show this to the world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stephanie tried to stand up and her head swooned, she felt a bit like the world was spinning but she steadied herself as best she could and half crawled, half dragged her disoriented self towards the voice.

“Stephanie?! Is that you baby? Baby?!”

“Yea dad. It’s me.”

“Oh thank god! Where’s your mother? Where’s Jaxon?”

Her mother was dead and Jaxon was nowhere to be seen.

But Stephanie couldn’t bring herself to say the words. To say it would make it true. And it wasn’t true.

It wasn’t.

She had always been taught to tell the truth, and she was a good girl, she always heeded her the words of her parents. But Stephanie told her dad the biggest lie that’s ever crossed her lips in her life that night.

The words burned like acid on her tongue.

“Mom’s fine dad. She’s over there calling for help now. Jaxon’s hurt but I think mom’s taking care of him. It doesn’t look that bad.”

“Good. That’s good. We’ll be alright baby. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“I know.”

…

…

…

…

…

An hour later, twelve-year-old Stephanie sat with her dad’s head cradled in her lap as she leaned against some jagged rock that made her back ache. Her pants were wet and she could feel a steady trickle of blood run down her thighs and legs, soaking through her clothes.

“Where’s your mother? Where’s Jaxon? Baby?”

“Mom’s fine dad. She’s over there calling for help now. Jaxon’s hurt but I think mom’s taking care of him. It doesn’t look that bad.”

“Good. That’s good. We’ll be alright baby. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“I know dad. I love you.”

“I love you too baby.”

Her dad’s voice was beginning to slur, and his memory would reboot every fifteen minutes or so. It was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because he would never figure out why his wife never came to look for them. A curse because Stephanie had to lie to her father’s face and answer that horrible question time and time again.

They were on some starlit forsaken stretch of road, late at night. Stephanie had tried to look for her mother’s or her father’s cell to call for help. One was crushed beyond recognition, the other was no where to be found. She had crawled back to her father instead.

No one was coming.

“Where’s you mother? Where’s Jaxon? Baby?”

“Mom’s fine dad. She’s over there calling for help now. Jaxon’s hurt but I think mom’s taking care of him. It doesn’t look that bad.”

“Good. That’s good. We’ll be alright baby. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Daddy I love you.”

“I love you too Stephanie. Come here, lay beside daddy. Everything will be alright. You’ll see.”

And so Stephanie had taken off her blood-soaked sweater and placed it underneath her dad’s injured head. She shuffled over and lay herself next to her father, her head on his chest, his arm encircling her tiny body. Stephanie listened to his breathing and his heartbeat.

They lay there like that. Father and daughter.

And eventually, dad didn’t talk anymore. Stephanie had watched as her dad’s eyes closed and even at the young age of twelve, she knew they wouldn’t open again.

She lay there and continued to press her ear desperately into his chest, ignoring the buttons of his shirt pressing painfully into her cheeks. His breathing had become rather shallow and insubstantial, like they were moving things even lighter than air. His heartbeat was slow and irregular, lazy almost, like it wasn’t in any hurry to get to the next beat.

Then there was a slight shift. Stephanie thought she heard his heart give a rather hollow pump, like his heart was no longer pumping blood. Dad’s chest rattled a bit and it sounded too much how her mother had sounded just moments before she…left.

Stephanie had cried then. She didn’t know else to do. She had cried and begged her father not to go. Not to leave her. But all the screaming and crying and all the yelling and temper tantrums she could throw would do nothing to keep the dead from dying.

She had heard his heart give one last confused beat, like her dad wasn’t quite yet ready to go, but had only the strength to hold on that one last second. Stephanie had her hands on his chest and she had felt it. Felt the heart stop. Felt her dad’s body go still. So so still.

Stephanie had scrambled away and stepped back from the thing that was no longer her dad, stepped back and screamed.

Then she ran. Ran far away from where her life had shattered into unrecognizable pieces.

She ran towards the only thing that was on her mind.

…

…

…

“Mom? How long till we get there?”

“You see those mountains over there? Well Lexi-belle’s grandmother lives close to there, and we’re going to pick her up from there! That’s where we’re headed baby.”

“I’m not the baby anymore mom.”

“You’ll always be my baby, Stephy.”

…

…

…

Stephanie ran down the dark winding road, her eyes ne